misato fukuen

Almost as if to make up for the 5.5 recap episode, this week’s Mädchen und Panzer was absolutely awesome. It was a delectable sandwich of tank battle and story development. More than half of episode 6 was closing out the battle. I’m not sure if I want to say that it takes 2 weeks, or however much time they had for episode 6, to bring such shows to higher ranks of awesomeness. Mädchen und Panzer has been a strong series from the start. Many people were quick to dismiss a show based on the initial concept of “Let’s combine moé girls with tanks. Trust me, it’ll do well.” But let’s not forget that our own preconceptions on what makes a good series good often backfires. I have made this mistake repeatedly, although more often with the shows that take themselves more seriously. Yet I have always come away with good impressions with silly shows like Mädchen und Panzer.

The last time I said “I’m gonna like this!” sarcastically, it switched over to a genuine “.. I like this.” This occurred during the first season of Strike Witches. It continues to happen with shows like Sword Art Online. (Yes, I had pegged SAO as a show that might not be very good before I saw any amount of the show itself.) Admittedly, this happens mostly when I’m reading a summary. Need to get into the habit of ignoring the pre-emptive impressions that surrounds most series before they even air.

I really appreciate the cannon fire sounds. They’re absolutely vicious. That it’s mixed so that it sounds like it’s clipping is a nice touch. Sometimes it’s a bit weird watching anything with tanks firing, and it sounds so pristine and smooth, you’d think these tanks were 1000 meters away. Also, hurray for Hirano Aya. Her performance as Alisa was entertaining. I’ve forgotten how amusing it is to listen to a screaming Aya — it’s on par with Misato Fukuen’s crazy howling. Here’s hoping Hirano-san can grab more voice acting jobs, since I truly do enjoy her voice.

Aside from episode 5.5, the pacing for Mädchen und Panzer is great. There’s a little bit of downtime, plenty of action, small but effective doses of character development, and the moé aspect often feels completely absent, thanks to fitting militaristic music. Really, the largest dose of moé comes in the form of the ED sequence with a miniature tank bobbing around like a plush toy as it advances down a road.

It’s been a while since I’ve used it, but here ya go, the Planes and Pants rating.

These things share two things in common. I can’t get enough of either of them, and there’s people who complain about how it looks.

Skyrim is getting a glut of informational write-ups on how to make the game look “better”. Admittedly, there’s a couple of instances of wishing the visual fidelity was questionable. I don’t always have a problem with how it looks. It would be extremely nitpicky of me to squish my character’s face against a rock slab and declare, “This kind of texture resolution is unacceptable!”. Quite frankly, I’m happy that it already feels less buggy than I anticipated. Some faggots think it’s incredibly buggy and broken with no recourse available to salvage what’s left of the game. Lucky for us they’re a relatively small minority (but still louder than ever). I think it’s a great game and it’d be a huge disservice to the game if your only reason not to play it was because someone else told you it was buggy. Besides, the game does eventually get fixed via official patches or through fan created fixes.

Haganai, otherwise known as Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai, has our male protagonist luckily not in Nordic skivvies. In fact, he looks rather dashing if you look at the top image. That is if you know nothing about Japanese culture and their silly nomenclature for guys who have lived 30 years and not experienced the warmth of a lover.

Actually, I’m not sure if there are people who complain about Haganai’s look. The show has taken a few dips in the art, but nothing nearly as notorious as some parts in the second season of Minami-ke. Oddly enough, there was one episode that had an entire segment that was decidedly animated by a highly skilled someone, and now the name escapes me. Perhaps I’ll rewatch that season to provide screencaps of the horrendous and the beautiful.

I’m personally rather happy to hear Misato Fukuen voicing Rika. Her role as Miyafuji Yoshika in Strike Witches was great, and puts her voice to great effect in Rika’s debut episode. Rika screaming “UNIVERSE!!!” was hilarious, and somehow arousing. I can gush about Marina Inoue and Kanae Itou too, but that’ll take up another entry.